@Cody C. Engdahl l have some military papers of Col. James H. Edmondson and have done a deep dive into his background and history. The Edmondson and Forrest families were close and he was a good friend of Forrest before, during and after the CW. Forrest installed him as Colonel of the 11th Tennessee cavalry in early 1863 when there was dissension in the regiment over commander issues and he remained in that position until the return of the former colonel after recovery from wounds in the summer of 1863. Edmondson then acquired and ran a blockade runner, the Charlotte Clark. There is evidence that Edmondson offered Forrest a position on the steamer when he took his sabbatical from Bragg after Chickamauga. Edmondson was a pallbearer at Forrest’s funeral. I have no evidence of their playing poker together but it is an inferable possibility if you are looking for plausible scenarios for a novel.